Season Finales: "How I Met Your Mother," "NCIS," "Boston Legal," and "Invasion"

This weekend, I did some catching up on a few season finales…

“How I Met Your Mother” is one of the strangest shows I’ve ever seen. If you didn’t see how it began, it appears to be just a simple romantic comedy; but if you’ve seen the pilot you know there’s an interesting twist.

“Mother” shows the romantic adventures of Ted, Barney and the engaged Lilly and Marshall. The story is told through flashback by an older Ted (voiced by Bob Saget) who is telling his children how he met their mother (thus, the title). In the premiere, Ted met Robin and instantly fell in love with her. Just one problem. At the end of the episode, Ted told his children that was how he met their “Aunt” Robin—telling all of us that Robin is not their mother.

However, the show has continued the story of Ted and Robin. You want to root for them, but it’s difficult since we know they won’t end up together. You don’t want to invest too much into them because you know it won’t pay off in the end. But it was hard not to enjoy them rekindling their romance after Ted did a rain dance to get Robin’s camping trip with another guy cancelled.

When I saw how the premiere ended, my first thought was that it would be totally ironic if Lilly, who was engaged to Ted’s friend, Marshall, ended up being the mother. And low and behold, Lilly and Marshall ended their engagement in the season finale. Now obviously that doesn’t automatically mean my theory is correct, but there’s still a chance.

I once called “NCIS” the best show I’m not watching. But now, I have no idea where it’s going. I knew that someone was leaving the show but I never would have guessed that it would be…Mark Harmon.

Harmon’s Gibbs is the leader of the team. He is the straight man to all of their quirks. What do they do now? Get a new straight man? I don’t like the sound of that. I’ve got to believe that some major crisis will bring Gibbs back, especially since I haven’t heard anything about Mark Harmon wanting to quit the show.

“NCIS” has steadily grown into one of CBS’s biggest hits. Harmon has played a major part in that. I can’t believe CBS would just let him go.

If you’ve been reading my posts about the fall schedules, then you know that “Boston Legal” will be back next season. But apparently, the writers had some doubt when they wrote the season finale. There was Denny’s appeal to Shirley for a kiss (“It’s a sweeps episode, Shirley.”), Alan’s toast to a new season with the hopes they’d be on the same night, and the last scene showing only the attorneys’ business cards. I’m a little disappointed that ABC spoiled the Michael J. Fox surprise, but I’m sure it made more people tune in. As for whether Julie Bowen is leaving the show, I have no idea, but that’s certainly how it appeared. Maybe they decided they only had room for one straight arrow lawyer. I am disappointed that this probably means the end of Denise’s affair with Brad.

And I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jeri Ryan back next season (even though she has a new show). She and James Spader had way more chemistry then Spader and Parker Posey.

I warned you that you would be disappointed in the “Invasion” finale because I knew it would be a cliffhanger. And a cliffhanger it was. I’ve only seen two episodes, but I really liked the show and kind of wish I had watched it all along (I’ll catch up with the DVD when it comes out August 22nd.). The site of Sheriff Underlay carrying Larkin’s lifeless body out to the water so the aliens could save her was awesomely creepy and a great way to end the show. I understand that it was too expensive for ABC to renew, but I wish CW had given the show a second look.